Key Indian businessmen helped secure release of nurses

The nurses were handed over to Indian contacts at the border between ISIS-controlled area and the Kurdish region Friday afternoon.

NEW DELHI: Contacts in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other Gulf nations, and a couple of prominent Indian businessmen are believed to be among those who assisted the Indian government in ensuring safe release of 46 nurses who were stranded in the area controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

With concerns about the safety of another 50 Indians, including 39 workers who are in ISIS captivity, high on its mind, the government was tightlipped about the various strands of negotiations used to ensure the safe release of the nurses.

Till the time of going to the press, officials insisted no ransom was paid.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was personally in touch with all the major Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Through informal channels, New Delhi had also established peripheral contacts with ISIS, and some splinter groups in Iraq.

At least a couple of prominent Malayalee businessmen were active along with various contacts in Gulf region, activated by Kerala government, to work behind the scene, sources said.

According to Kerala chief minister Oomen Chandy and others, the ISIS militants who moved the nurses from Tikrit to Mosul, which is 250 kilometers away, provided them food and accommodation in Mosul, and allowed them to contact their families in Kerala.

In fact, none of the nurses have yet complained of any ill-treatment by the hardline Sunni faction.

The nurses were handed over to Indian contacts at the border between ISIS-controlled area and the largely autonomous Kurdish region Friday afternoon.

Governor of Irbil province Nawaz Shadi was among those who assisted the Indian efforts, sources said.

Chandy, who has been camping in Delhi since Wednesday, said that at the Kurdish border there was some confusion which led to an hour's delay in releasing the nurses.

The Indian embassy representatives, who were to receive the women, were at a location different from where the militants arrived with the nurses.

Officials insist that in the handing over no ransom was involved. The women then boarded a vehicle brought by the Indian embassy officials and taken to the airport.

One official involved in the process said there was "very little" India could do, other than to depend on sources in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"The most credible inputs, regarding their location and safety came from the nurses themselves," he said, admitting the helplessness in strife-torn Iraq.

Last night though there was concern after the nurses were moved out of Tikrit, indications from local contacts had been consistent about the fact that ISIS do not intend to harm them, sources said.

This has been confirmed by inputs coming from the nurses after they reach Erbil International airport, 70 km from Mosul, to board a special Air India aircraft on Friday night.